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Saturday, March 05, 2011

Recipe for Made-from-Scratch Low-Sugar and Whole Wheat Bran Muffins with Apple and Walnuts

Delicious from-scratch Bran Muffins with Apple and Walnuts, and less sugar!

Here we are on a weekend when so many food bloggers are talking about festive Mardi Gras Foods, and I'm giving you Made-from-Scratch Low-Sugar and Whole Wheat Bran Muffins. Oh my. I hope that's not a sign that I am hopelessly un-hip, but I did promise on Twitter that I would share this recipe over the weekend, and I'm a woman who keeps her promises. Besides, I like bran muffins, and my body reminds me often that eating more fiber is a good thing!

When I saw a recipe for made-from scratch pear bran muffins (with no bran cereal) in the The South Beach Diet Quick and Easy Cookbook it turned into one of those baking experiences where I have to make the recipe several times before I'm happy with it. Right away I switched pears for apples (because I never have pears in the house, but almost always have apples.) I made these three times, with quite a few changes from the inspiring recipe, but I thought the final version was just right. These muffins are just slightly sweet, and to my taste they're much better than all those bran muffin recipes that use bran cereal as one of the main ingredients.

I used a mixture of sweetener and a little brown sugar in this recipe, which I've found gives better flavor than just sweetener alone. Of course if you want to use all sweetener (or even all brown sugar if you don't care about the whole low-sugar thing) please adapt to what works for you. I also used a mix of whole wheat pastry flour and almond meal in my muffins, but if you don't want to buy those I'm guessing white whole wheat flour would probably work. (If people try variations of the recipe that are a success, I'd love to hear about it in the comments.)

In a smaller bowl, beat the two eggs, then add buttermilk, oil, and vanilla and stir to combine.

You'll enjoy the muffins more if you take an extra minute or two and make sure the apple is very finely diced before you add it to the liquids. I used an apple corer, then peeled off the skin and diced up the apple pieces.

I also took a couple of minutes to toast the walnuts in a dry pan before I chopped them, which also adds flavor.

I don't like big chunks of walnuts in cookies or bread, so I chopped them pretty finely.

Mix the finely chopped apples and walnuts into the wet ingredients.

Then add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just enough that all the dry ingredients are moistened.

Spray muffin cups or muffin pan with nonstick spray or oil, then divide the mixture among the muffin cups. (If you use the small muffin cups like I did, they will be pretty full.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out completely clean. Let muffins cool a little before eating. You can keep these muffins in the fridge for quite a few days, and I am sure they will freeze well, although I haven't frozen any yet because I keep eating them!

Beat eggs in smaller bowl, then stir in the buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. Remove apple core and peel the apple, then finely chop apple pieces and add to liquid ingredients. Toast walnuts for 1-2 minutes in a dry pan over high heat, just until they start to become fragrant. Then finely chop walnuts and add to liquid ingredients.

Add the wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir just enough so that all the dry ingredients are moistened. Use a large spoon to divide the batter among the muffin cups. Bake at 350F/180C for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out completely clean.

Let muffins cool for a few minutes before eating. These muffins will keep well in the fridge for quite a few days. I am sure they would freeze well, although I haven't frozen any yet. To reheat, microwave for about 30 seconds. (I like to eat them hot with Brummel and Brown Natural Yogurt Spread.)

Even with the 2 tablespoons of brown sugar that I used, these muffins are pretty low in sugar and I would eat them for phase 2 or 3 of the South Beach Diet. Using almond meal makes the muffins more low-glycemic, but nuts are a calorie-dense food, so use portion control. I'd probably limit it to one muffin for phase 2 and two muffins for phase 3.

Nutritional Information?

I chose the South Beach Diet to manage my weight using The Glycemic Index
partly so I wouldn't have to count calories, carbs, points, or fat
grams, but if you want nutritional information for a recipe, I recommend
entering the recipe into Calorie Count, which will calculate it for you.

Posts
may include links to my affiliate account at Amazon.com, and Kalyn's
Kitchen earns a few cents on the dollar if readers purchase the items I
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Posts may include links to my affiliate account at Amazon.com, and this blog earns a few cents on the dollar if readers purchase the items I recommend, so thanks for supporting my blog when you shop at Amazon!

26 comments:

I adore bran muffins, and I've always made them with bran cereal, but this recipe looks like a great alternative. I often have pears in the house, but not always apples. I think ripe pears have more moisture than ripe apples, so I wonder if that will change the texture of the muffins.

Lydia, I'm guessing it will work with pears. At least I didn't change the amount of liquid when I subbed apples, and in fact I added more Splenda and brown sugar, so I added more dry ingredients (although almond meal is probably less dry than flour, who who knows.)

Hi Kalyn, I'm always looking for healthy muffin recipes and this one sounds terrific, with whole grain flour, almond meal, apples and high fiber walnuts. I've been using almond flour in more recipes for its protein and fiber content. I'll be trying a gluten-free version of this recipe since I have a new gluten-free child to consider. Thanks for this wonderful recipe!

I was searching for low-sugar desserts or snacks and google led me to your blog. Wow you have a lot of healthy recipes shared here... I haven't browsed much yet and I'm already enjoying looking at your recipes. I'm choosing this one to try out. I'm not a very good cook so wish me luck!lol

I made these this morning, looking for a breakfast alternative to eggs. I started the recipe before I read it, so I had to "make" my own buttermilk, pecans instead of walnuts and I substituted flax for bran. Turned out wonderful! I am phase two right now but I did not use splenda - I made splenda cookies that were just revolting! Terrible aftertaste! So I did use all brown sugar...

Hi Kalyn, I promised myself that I would get back into baking from scratch and cooking more. i have been cheating a lot lately with boxes and ready made crap from the store:(. This muffin recipe looks like the ticket to get me started baking again. Yum.

Hi are these good for phase 1? There are only so many eggs I can eat, and I need a breakfast recipe that is fairly easy as I work shifts and often have to take my breakfast in with me. If you have any other ideas I would be open to hearing them : ) thanks

The phase is always given right after the printer friendly recipe. Grains aren't allowed for phase one, so these are phase 2 or 3. I haven't come up with any great ideas for phase one breakfasts without eggs, but some readers have shared ideas in the comments here.

I make a similar recipe. I like to use less bran and substitute flax meal, whole rolled oats and/or buckwheat. You can also omit the brown sugar and reduce the buttermilk by adding 1/4 cup applesauce (they come in packs of six single serve containers, which are perfect for this recipe). If the muffins seem a little dry you can also substitute 1 Tbsp of honey instead of the brown sugar, as honey is a natural humectant.

Bonnie I'm trying to get a recipe that's as low in sugar as possible so adding either applsesauce or honey wouldn't work for me (or for anyone else who's following South Beach) but I'm sure your recipe is delicious.

Hello Kalyn! I made these muffins today and they are wow, delicious! Since I started menopause I have been craving sweets like crazy. The problem is I have type 2 diabetes, so Iam limited to my sugar intake.So I bake my own and your wonderful low sugar, high fibre recipes are just what I need.

Thanks for joining the conversation! I love hearing from readers and even though I can't always reply to every comment, I will always answer specific questions on a recipe as soon as possible. Sometimes I'm answering by iPhone, so my replies may be short!

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